Various types of sensors have been proposed in which a carrier plate for a sensor element is provided and on which, further, a heating element is applied in order to heat the carrier plate, and with it the sensor element, to a suitable operating temperature--see the Referenced German Disclosure Documents DE-OS Nos. 28 26 515, and 28 15 879 (to which U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,965, Cullingford et al corresponds) and also U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,614, T. Y. Tien. The heating elements of those sensors are applied to one side of the major plane of a carrier plate, the other side of the major plane of the carrier plate carrying the sensor element as such. The plate is placed in a stream of combustion exhaust gases. As hot combustion gases pass by the sensor, the temperature of the sensor element itself shows a gradient between the outer edge zones and the central zone. The central zone which is directly impinged by the hot gases will have a higher temperature than the outer end zones. As a consequence of the temperature gradient within the sensor element itself, output signal variations will be observed although there is no change in the gas composition; further, the delicate sensor structure itself, and also the carrier support therefor, is subject to fracture, leading to loss of a control signal from the sensor.